Amid worsening winter pressures for the NHS, there are warnings from health professionals that industrial action ‘could see one of the most difficult starts to the year for health services across the country’. According to NHS England, recent data showed that the number of people in hospital with flu during one week in December rose to an average of 942 each day; almost six times the number compared to the week before. The NHS Confederation has said that an average of 4244 beds were occupied by Covid-19 patients per day in the first week of January, compared to 3927 the previous week.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has announced that 1.4 million more people will be eligible for the antiviral Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir plus ritonavir, Pfizer) if they test positive for Covid-19, following final draft NICE guidance. NICE has recommended Paxlovid for around 3.9 million people who have an increased risk for progression to severe disease from Covid-19. This includes people with certain cancers, people who have had haematological stem cell transplant or who have a haematological disease, and those with liver or kidney disease.
The updated final draft guidance increases the number of people eligible to access Paxlovid to an estimated 5.3 million. It says this means that, within 3 months of the final guidance, the following groups will also have access to Paxlovid if they test positive for Covid-19: people aged 85 years and over; those with end-stage heart failure who have a long-term ventricular assistance device; people on the organ transplant waiting list; and people aged 70 years and over, or who have a BMI of 35 kg/m2 or more, diabetes or heart failure, and are resident in a care home, or are already hospitalised (NICE, 2024). Paxlovid is given as two separate tablets to people within 5 days of getting Covid-19 symptoms. It works by stopping the virus from growing and spreading in the body. Nirmatrelvir stops the virus from growing and spreading, and ritonavir helps nirmatrelvir from being broken down in the body while it is working.
The junior doctors’ strikes in January led to more than 110 000 patients having their care cancelled and the NHS has rearranged more than 1.3 million appointments over the last 13 months (Campbell, 2024). With futher strike ballots to be held shortly, there is little sign the pressures on the service will be lessening any time soon.